Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services.

Interest Rates and Resource Outputs Weigh on ASX

A look at the Australian market.

After tracking higher in the first couple of hours of trade, the S&P/ASX 200(INDEX: ^AXJO) couldn't hang on to its early gains on April 17, closing down 0.3% to 4288.6 points.

The market seemed to lose steam after the Reserve Bank released the minutes from its most recent meeting, outlining its plans to use the upcoming Consumer Price Index (CPI) read as its guide for the next move on rates.

As is always the case, though, the index return tells only part of the story. It's the weighted average of the 200 companies that make up the index -- meaning that half of the index (by weight) did better than that mark, and the other half worse.

Leading the charge today were the miners -- bouncing back from losses at the end of last week. Streeting the field was Energy Resources of Australia (ERA.AX) with a 12.7% gain today alone. ERA left the others in its dust, but Lynas (LYC.AX) managed a very creditable 5% gain, and Energy World (EWC.AX) closed up 4.6%. Rounding out the Top 5 were Ardent Leisure Group with a 2.9% bump and Australian Infrastructure Fund, up 2.7%.

With gainers of this magnitude and the index showing losses on the day, it was inevitable that there'd be some big losers among the 60% of the companies that ended lower today.

Providing a neat bookend to ERA's gain was Linc Energy (LNC.AX), which closed down 13%. There were some other heavy losers today, with 13 companies showing losses of 3% or more. Among the largest were Mirabela Nickel (MBN.AX), off 8.3%, Ramelius Resources (RMS.AX), down 5.5%, Regis Resources, which shed 5.3%, and Mineral Deposits, which dropped 4.8% today.

In other news, Rio Tinto(NYSE: RIO)(RIO.AX) released output figures that disappointed the market, with a 0.7% fall in the share price.

The Australian dollar dipped after the release of the RBA minutes, down 0.5 cents to $1.0305 just before 5 p,m, Australian Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday.

As always, an index throws the good in with the bad, and you should never read too much into a single day's share-price movement. We Fools remain on the hunt for the best shares on the market -- using dips as a buying opportunity.

Take Stock is The Motley Fool's free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Click here now to request your free subscription, while it's still available. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.